When She Smiles
by Kalime
Summary: Sasuke and Sakura are getting married.. Ino doesn't take the news very well. Who better to help her than Shikamaru? [PG for swearing and a drunken Ino.]


A/N: I might send this in for a writing competition, if fanfiction is allowed. n_n; I was actually assigned to write a story with a moral (moral?!) and this is what I came up with. What do you expect from a hopeless sap and romance writer? xD  
  
Anyways, this is my Shikamaru/Ino fic called "When She Smiles." It has some bits from an earlier fic I wrote, but that fic was baseless and horrible, so this one is much better. I think I made Ino a little too drunk in the beginning and not drunk enough at the end. xD   
  
This has mostly Shika/Ino, but also hints of Ino/Saku and Ino/Sasu (hardly, though o_O) and far too much Sasu/Saku for my liking, but it works. So enjoy and try to ignore the Sasu/Saku.   
  
---  
  
Ino had always been fickle when it came to relationships. When she had started to chase after Sasuke, she knew it would never last very long. She had hoped that her time with Sakura would be longer, but it hadn't been. Yet she still loved both of them very much. Love was a strange thing. Even though they were still friends, neither of them would ever return Ino's lingering feelings again.   
  
But she had never expected them to marry each other.   
  
Ino could remember perfectly the excited look on Sakura's face when the beautiful pink-haired young woman rushed over, her cheeks rosy from running. Her breathless exclamation still sounded clear in Ino's head.  
  
"Ino, guess what? I'm getting married to Sasuke-kun."   
  
The sight of the simple gold band ring on Sakura's finger just about crushed Ino's heart.  
  
And so here she sat: in a bar, drunk out of her mind and carrying on quite a fascinating conversation with an imaginary barkeeper. If she could see herself now, she would be sickened. But hindsight was for the sober and so Ino continued to chat with a wall. One could imagine what Shikamaru did when he came across this scene. Ino's friend and former teammate made his way over to the place where the blonde woman was seated, idly twisting a lock of her blonde hair around her finger as she spoke.   
  
"Ino, what the hell are you doing?" Shikamaru demanded, frowning. He and Chouji had been looking for her a while and here she was, getting drunk. Ino looked up and smiled blankly at Shikamaru, giggling a bit.   
  
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm talking to my friend here." Ino replied, her speech slightly slurred. She gestured lazily to the space in front of her, which was empty. Shikamaru shook his head and sighed. What a hassle she was.. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to get her to stand up.  
  
"Ino, you're drunk. Now get up so I can drag you home before you pass out on the floor." Shikamaru said, eyeing her half-empty drink. Yes, it was half-empty right now and not half-full. Finding Ino here, of all places, was enough reason to make that glass half-empty.   
  
"I'm not drunk. Just ask Kenji." Ino said, giggling again as she turned back to the wall. She blinked and tilted her head slightly, seemingly surprised to see that there was nobody there at all. "Kenji?"  
  
"Ino, stand up." Shikamaru said, trying to be patient. Why was he doing this? Was his intoxicated past teammate even worth all this trouble?   
  
"Mm'kay." Ino mumbled, getting up from the stool she had been seated on. She promptly tripped on her high heeled shoes and collapsed into Shikamaru's arms. Shikamaru caught her with a grunt and helped her balance herself again. He quietly instructed her to remove her shoes, speaking softly so they wouldn't attract any more attention from the other bar occupants. Ino obeyed, sliding the shoes off her feet and holding them loosely in one hand.   
  
"Okay, maybe I'm a little drunk." Ino admitted meekly.   
  
"Glad you noticed. Can you walk?" Shikamaru asked, his previous statement holding a note of sarcasm. Ino nodded almost guility, looking downcast. Shikamaru mentally kicked himself and started to walk out of the bar, making sure Ino was close behind. What a waste of time this was turning out to be..  
  
Shikamaru helped Ino out of the bar and back onto the streets of Konoha, walking her back towards her house. He doubted that she would be able to get back by herself and he couldn't just leave her out here, drunk no less. His sandals thumped lightly against the ground while Ino's bare feet made no noise at all now that she was rid of her high heels. Instead of her normal shinobi attire, Ino wore a dark purple dress and had let her hair down instead of her usual ponytail. Even with her makeup slightly smeared from her tears and her cheeks flushed from drinking, she looked.. pretty.   
  
Shikamaru promptly looked away, making Ino giggle. She had seen him looking at her, so it wasn't like she hadn't been able to tell. Shikamaru sighed, keeping his eyes up at the sky, down at the ground or anyplace besides Ino. She wouldn't remember most of this in the morning, so it wouldn't matter. What had gotten into him anyways? He was the one acting weirder than Ino was and she was, as Asuma would so tactfully say, plastered.   
  
Ino took this moment to look at Shikamaru. It was only fair, right? Besides, he had gotten a tad more handsome once he got older. He didn't look like the caveman-esque, lazy chuunin that Ino had trained with for most of her genin days anymore. He still kept his hair up in that ridiculous feather-duster hairdo that Ino had more than once begged him to change. Of course, he was too lazy to do so. Sure he had improved in the way of looks, but not at all in his laziness.   
  
"So what were you doing in that bar anyways?" Shikamaru asked, looking back at her. Damn, all his effort had been for nothing. How troublesome.. He didn't know why he asked, since he already knew why: she was getting upset over Sasuke and Sakura's engagement. It seemed like there were more and more things that he didn't know and that was starting to irk him, even though it looked like all those things were related to Ino.   
  
"Nothing. Just having a quick drink, that's all." Ino said with a frown, her speech seeming to slowly repair itself. Her steps were still awkward and clumsy, but walking through the streets in her bare feet seemed to sober her up, if only a little.   
  
"Fine, fine. You don't have to get angry about it. Man, you can be more touchy than Sasuke sometimes.." Shikamaru mumbled, then mentally kicked himself again. "Oh geez, Ino, I didn't mean to.." he started to say, but Ino waved him off, nearly loosing her balance and falling again as she did. She reached up to wipe away the oncoming tears from her eyes, only succeeding in smearing her makeup even more. Ino didn't bother trying to brush away the tears because more would take their place anyways.   
  
"No.. It's not your fault.." Ino said, her voice hitching in her throat as she started to cry. She whimpered a bit as the small droplets formed streams flowing down her face. She dropped her shoes onto the ground with a thud and fell forward into Shikamaru arms, sobbing. Shikamaru instinctively put his arms around her so she wouldn't fall, which made Ino bury her face into his jacket and weep. Shikamaru looked down at her, sighing and holding her quietly until she pulled away and rubbed her eyes again.   
  
"Sorry, I-" Ino started to say, but surprisingly, Shikamaru cut her off.  
  
"Don't cry. It doesn't suit you." He said, withdrawing his arms now that she could stand up straight. Ino blinked, not able to say anything, so she just looked at him questioningly. Shikamaru shrugged, so Ino figured she had to say something or else he would never explain himself. After a long pause, Ino had gathered her wits and her voice so she wouldn't have to croak out a question.   
  
"What do you mean?" Ino asked, her voice soft.  
  
"You look much nicer when you smile." Shikamaru said simply. Ino blinked, dumbfounded. She managed a light laugh and smiled, looking up at Shikamaru, her blue eyes glistening with the remnants of tears.   
  
"For a lazy asshole.. You're a nice guy, Shikamaru."  
  
~Don't frown, even when you're sad.. You never know who might be falling in love with your smile.~ 


End file.
